A COUPLE transformed their “worst house on the street” into a charming country cottage – and were stunned to find out their profits from the renovation.
Accountants Tim and Laura bought the grotty home for just over £300K, but walked out with over £75K in profits from the staggering facelift.
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Appearing on Channel 4 show ‘Worst House on the Street’, the parents took on the challenge of revamping the drab 1830’s house into their dream home in just 13 weeks.
The couple bought the property in Glais, near Swansea, after moving to the area from Bristol with their daughter.
Helped by brother-sister hosting duo Scarlette and Stuart Douglas, the couple forked out nearly £80,000 for the full-home makeover.
But the presenters definitely felt the house needed all the help it could get when they first saw the house, describing it as a “diamond in the rough, with a lot of rough.”
However, they admitted that the home “could be beautiful” if given some badly needed TLC, adding that Swansea was a “thriving city” for them to live in.
The property experts said a detached home in the area fetched for an average of around £300,000 during the last year, with houses neighbouring the one bought by Tim and Laura have recently sold for as much as £470,000.
Despite hitting the market for £320,000, the couple were able to snatch their run-down house for a cut price £302,000.
Taking on the full-home modernisation as their first ever renovation, the couple got stuck in.
Starting with the house’s dirty off-white external walls, the duo transformed just about every aspect of the home.
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This included knocking down a wall to add some extra space, installing a log burner, and completely redoing the conservatory to bring it out of the “80’s timewarp” it was in.
When the hosts returned after the 3 month renovations, they were astounded at the progress the parents had made.
Stuart said the property was “unrecognisable,” adding: “This transformation is impressive.”
Despite described its huge conservatory as “a monstrosity” before the project, Stuart admitted: “That conservatory is 10, 20, 100 times better than what was there before. It’s so much better.”
Spending nearly £80,000 on their renovation, the pair admitted that they were far from confident over whether their hard work would pay off.
Laura predicted the pair would “maybe” break even, while Tim felt they could hope to scrape £350K in value.
He added: “I’m only calm about it because we’re not planning on selling it. If we were going to sell it I’d be devastated.”
However, the parents were stunned as Scarlette and Stuart revealed that the house had been valued at an average of £458,000, meaning they had made a profit of £76,000.
But the good news didn’t stop there, as they added one of the agents who valued the house said the couple could probably fetch prices of around half a million pounds due to their hard work.
Tim had a hilarious change of heart following the valuation, as he joked: “Right, let’s sell it!”
Laura added that she was “speechless.”
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